5 Things You Didn’t Know: Akira

For readers unfamiliar with anime — Japanese animation — the name Katsuhiro Otomo likely means nothing, but, for even casual fans, he is pioneer, genius and progenitor of the cultural phenomenon known as Akira. It’s the sprawling, cyberpunk story of 16-year-old Shotaro Kaneda and his fellow teenage bikers who survive in post-apocalyptic Tokyo in the year 2019.

The feature-length anime film was released in 1988, and now Hollywood has its sights set on the story. The live-action remake, scheduled to open in 2009, is getting plenty of attention, thanks in part to the rumored involvement of Leonardo DiCaprio.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at five things you didn’t know about one of the great watersheds in film animation history, the original Akira.

1- Akira was inspired by Bonnie and Clyde

Born in 1954, Otomo was no stranger to Western film, in particular movies that revolved around the rebel figure. He was in his teens when two of his bigger inspirations were released, and one can see the influence of these movies on Otomo and Akira merely by examining their taglines: “The strangest damned gang you ever heard of” comes from 1967’s Bonnie and Clydeand “He rode the fast lane on the road to nowhere” harkens from 1970’s Five Easy Pieces.

These films influenced Otomo’s thematic sense and his unique illustration style. His attention to giving his characters somewhat realistic anatomy, including facial features, is sometimes at odds with the typical manga (the Japanese term for comics) style, but it helped set Otomo apart from others and gave him an instantly recognizable and signature style.

2- Akira was the biggest grossing film of the year

Akira required over 2,200 shots, 160,000 single pictures and 327 different colors (a good 50 of them created for the film), which might help explain the film’s record-setting production budget for Japanese animation of 1.1 billion Yen (about $8.5 million in 1988). Also, much of the film takes place at night, which calls for higher color requirements.

Fortunately for Otomo, Akira, with its nerve-touching themes of youth alienation, government corruption and the struggle for power (along with a heavy dose of violence and even some nudity) proved a smash success at the box office, earning 6.3 billion Yen in Japan ($49 million) and another $500,000 at U.S. box offices.

3- Akira was a 2,000-page comic book

Akira began in 1982 as a manga that appeared in publication in Young Magazine, a rag similar to that of Mad magazine in the U.S.

It would ultimately run until the summer of 1990, running in excess of 2,000 pages, every one of which Otomo wrote and illustrated by hand. Japanese publisher Kodansha released it in six volumes, and it was published in the U.S. on two occasions with two different translations: first in 1988 by Epic Comics in 38 issues and again in 2000 by Dark Horse Comics, the latter time as trade paperbacks.